Hello all! I took a break from blogging after my father and then mother passed away. It kind of knocked the wind out of my sails for blogging. But I’m back to finish out this trip diary. Let’s say the remaining posts about this trip are not very recent. If you’re still up to read, I’m still up to finish this journey.

We left Wendover and crossed into Utah. My recollection of this part of the state from previous trips was that there were enormous salt flats, which sometimes had a layer of water on top. But we were looking at extreme heat and drought conditions, so the beautiful photos with turquoise water on top of white salt flats were just not there.

We ate lunch in Salt Lake City and stopped by Wasatch Brewery to pick up a few craft brew packs. I’ve always found Polygamy Porter to be a hilarious name for a beer. 😀 So I grabbed some of that. Finding a place to park the trailer was a bit difficult at this brewery. It was very crowded. We were off in time to make it to Vernal, Utah by late afternoon.

Our campground in Vernal was the Vernal Dinosaurland Holiday KOA. We had a little fenced yard nearby for Cee Cee to walk, a patio and grill. After a little grocery run, we ate barbecue chicken that first night, on the grill, and relaxed. We spent the evening looking at shooting stars with our telescope. The sky just seems so much more vast, and there’s far less light pollution out there.

The second day – our only full day in Vernal – the kids took advantage of the pool and relaxed, while I focused on laundry. Chris used the WiFi to do work. In the late afternoon, we drove up the road from our campsite to visit Red Fleet State Park. It’s a shame because we got there so close to the park’s closing time that we didn’t see the dinosaur footprints, but the scenery was still breathtaking. I would highly recommend carving out time to visit this park if you’re in the area. Of course, Dinosaur is a fun park to visit as well, however, we had been there during our last cross country trip with the kids so they wanted to bypass it this time.